As I can completely join in with the praise your correspondent MR. TENNYSON
awards to Mr. Fennell's _Natural History of Quadrupeds_ (except as regards
some of its woodcuts, which I understand were inserted by the publisher in
spite of the author's remonstrance), I feel induced to protect Mr. Fennell
from the hypercritical commentary of your correspondent J. S.s. (p. 136.).
In the passage quoted and commented on, had Mr. Fennell used the word
_beach_, it would certainly have referred to the sea; but the word "shore,"
which he there uses, applies to rivers as well as seas. Thus Spenser,
speaking of the river Nile, says:
"... Beside the fruitful _shore_ of muddy _Nile_,
Upon a sunny bank outstretched lay,
In monstrous length, a mighty crocodile."
The passage, therefore, in Mr. Fennell's work does not seem to me to be
incorrect, as it may have reference to the _shore_ of the Tweed, Ettrick,
Yarrow, or some other rivers in Selkirkshire.
May I take the present opportunity of inquiring through your truly useful
columns, when Mr. Fennell's work on the natural history of Shakspeare,
advertised some few years since, is likely to appear?